"Many Men in the Cage?"

The girl of his dreams: Scott Fitzgerald in drag for The Evil Eye, a musical he wrote at Princeton the same year as his visit to Montana

Programming note: In an hour or so I'll be making a rare Monday appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight", live on Fox News at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. Hope you'll tune in. I'll also be on "Fox & Friends" tomorrow morning at 8am Eastern.

Meanwhile, for those who prefer me in non-visual form, here we go with Part Four of our brand new Tale for Our Time - my serialization of Scott Fitzgerald's novella The Diamond as Big as the Ritz. In tonight's episode Braddock Washington shows John around his Montana estate:

"This is the golf course," he continued, as they strolled along the velvet winter grass. "It's all a green, you seeâ€”no fairway, no rough, no hazards."

He smiled pleasantly at John.

"Many men in the cage, father?" asked Percy suddenly.

Braddock Washington stumbled, and let forth an involuntary curse.

"One less than there should be," he ejaculated darklyâ€”and then added after a moment, "We've had difficulties."

"Mother was telling me," exclaimed Percy, "that Italian teacherâ€”"

"A ghastly error," said Braddock Washington angrily. "But of course there's a good chance that we may have got him. Perhaps he fell somewhere in the woods or stumbled over a cliff. And then there's always the probability that if he did get away his story wouldn't be believed. Nevertheless, I've had two dozen men looking for him in different towns around here."

"And no luck?"

"Some. Fourteen of them reported to my agent they'd each killed a man answering to that description, but of course it was probably only the reward they were afterâ€”"

He broke off. They had come to a large cavity in the earth about the circumference of a merry-go-round, and covered by a strong iron grating. Braddock Washington beckoned to John, and pointed his cane down through the grating. John stepped to the edge and gazed. Immediately his ears were assailed by a wild clamor from below.

Being as rich - and staying as rich - as Braddock Washington is trickier than you might assume. Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Part Four of our adventure simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here. William Burke, a first-weekend Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:

Delightful. I've listened to all the Tales for Our Time stories, some twice. I had just read The Time Machine, but frankly I got so much more enjoyment out of your reading. Thank you for doing these stories. And Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, William. If you're thinking of giving the gift of Steyn this holiday season, we've introduced a special Mark Steyn gift membership that lets you sign up a chum for the Steyn Club and then choose a personally autographed welcome gift for them - either one of two handsome hardback books or a couple of CDs. You'll find more details here - and scroll down to the foot of the order form for the choice of books/CDs..

See you on TV in an hour, and for Part Five of The Diamond as Big as the Ritz tomorrow.

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3 Reader Comments

Fran Lavery • Nov 22, 2017 at 02:39

The scene of the men imprisoned in the great earthen hole was the last thing I saw coming, and struck me as peculiar that the creepy merciless Braddock Washington would want to be showing it off to Percy's guest, John. That he could matter of factly assert there was no such thing as cruelty when one's self-preservation was at stake struck me as being one tough pill to swallow if one was below ground in the concave well, but the plain reality from the side of the lens the old man looked through. Men who aren't actively determining their paths to self-preservation run the risk of someone else determining it for them. Guess this is why there will always be subservience of one form or another as well as wars. Quite the fascinating and dreadful tale Scott Fitzgerald has woven here! I'm feeling this in the pit of my stomach and it isn't stuff of goodness and virtue.

P. Gao • Nov 21, 2017 at 17:25

Quite amazed at this story - with only the Great Gatsby as reference, never guessed F.S. Fitzgerald would write something like this. Actually found this part almost gutting, this fiction nearly a 100 years old, as today we read reports about elite remote places such as Epstein's island. How does one, sucked in by guile or by force, escape from that cruelty?